Henrik

Österblom

PhD

Science director, professor

henrik.osterblom@su.se

+46 8 674 76 64

@henrikosterblom

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Profile summary

  • Ocean governance
  • Transnational corporations
  • Cultural evolution
  • Fisheries management
  • Seabirds and the Baltic Sea

Henrik Österblom's research focuses on marine ecosystems, ocean stewardship and the evolution of cooperation. He is also science director at the Stockholm Resilience Centre

Österblom has a PhD in Marine Ecology from the Department of Systems Ecology at Stockholm University, and a Master’s Degree in Behavioural Ecology from the Department of Zoology at Uppsala University.

He is interested in marine ecosystems and ways to improve ocean stewardship. Starting as a seabird ecologist, with a particular interest in social interactions between alcids, he has worked on understanding how the Baltic Sea is managed, how international collaboration emerged to address non-compliance in Southern Ocean fisheries, and how transnational corporations shape the present and future ocean. Ongoing work is focusing on the role of science in society and the cultural evolution of global prosocial behavior. He has worked at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and as Special Advisor to the Swedish Government in the Secretariat for the Environmental Advisory Council.

Österblom has facilitated the Keystone Dialogues, a global co-production project including major private actors in global seafood, which has resulted in the establishment of the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative, aimed to transform global seafood towards more sustainable practices. This project is funded by the Walton Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He is also principal investigator of project New solutions to marine problems, aimed at accelerating marine ecosystem knowledge through the use of autonomous drones and artificial intelligence and funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.

Österblom is a member of the Expert Group for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and member of the IMBER Human Dimensions Working Group. He serves on the international advisory board of the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS²), as board member of Race for the Baltic, and as chairman of the SeaBOS Fundraising foundation. He is subject editor for Ecology and Society, and PLOS One.

Podcasts

Stockholm Resilience Centre podcast on the importance of music and science.

Guest on Rethink Talks: What it takes to make science and business connect, exploring the challenges and risks associated to science business collaboration.

Staff details

ORCID: 0000-0002-1913-5197

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Publications by Österblom, Henrik

Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere

Journal / article | 2021

Folke, C., Polasky, S., Rockström, J. et al. Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere. Ambio 50, 834–869 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01544-8

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed an interconnected and tightly coupled globalized world in rapid change. This article sets the scientific stage for understanding and responding to such change for global sustainability and resilient societies. We provide a systemic overview of the current situation where people and nature are dynamically intertwined and embedded in the biosphere, placing shocks and extreme events as part of t...

The Ocean 100: Transnational corporations in the ocean economy

Journal / article | 2021

Virdin, J., Vegh, T., Jouffray, J-B., Blasiak, R., Mason, S., Österblom, H., Vermeer, D., Watchmeister, H., Werner, N. 2021. The Ocean 100: Transnational corporations in the ocean economy. Science Advances 13 Jan 2021. Vol. 7, no. 3, eabc8041, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc8041

The ocean economy is growing as commercial use of the ocean accelerates, while progress toward achieving international goals for ocean conservation and sustainability is lagging. In this context, the private sector is increasingly recognized as having the capacity to hamper efforts to achieve aspirations of sustainable ocean-based development or alternatively to bend current trajectories of ocean use by taking on the mantle of...

Sharing the seas: A review and analysis of ocean sector interactions

Journal / article | 2021

Crona, B., Wassénius, E., Lillepold, K., Watson, R., Selig, E., Hicks, C., Österblom, H., Folke, C., Jouffray, J.B. and Blasiak, R., 2021. Sharing the seas: A review and analysis of ocean sector interactions. Environmental Research Letters.

Ocean activities are rapidly expanding as Blue Economy discussions gain traction, creating new potential synergies and conflicts between sectors. To better manage ocean sectors and their development, we need to understand how they interact and the respective outcomes of these interactions. To provide a first comprehensive picture of the situation, we review 3187 articles to map and analyze interactions between economically im...

Seabird‐induced natural mortality of forage fish varies with fish abundance: Evidence from five ecosystems

Journal / article | 2020

Saraux, C., Sydeman, W.J., Piatt, J.F., Anker‐Nilssen, T., Hentati‐Sundberg, J., Bertrand, S., Cury, P.M., Furness, R.W., Mills, J.A., Österblom, H. and Passuni, G., 2020. Seabird‐induced natural mortality of forage fish varies with fish abundance: Evidence from five ecosystems. Fish and Fisheries.

Forage fish populations often undergo large and rapid fluctuations in abundance. However, most of their predators are buffered against such fluctuations owing to their slower pace of life, which allows them to maintain more stable populations, at least during short periods of food scarcity. In this study, we investigated top‐down processes exerted by seabirds on forage fish stocks in five contrasted marine ecosystems, compili...